Olympia passes liquor privatization bill

The Legislature on Wednesday approved a measure allowing the state to consider private sector bids to take over its liquor distribution system.

This comes as Costco launches a new effort to completely privatize the sales and distribution of liquor.

Under Senate Bill 5942, the state would still maintain control of liquor sales if it privatized distribution. The Liquor Control Board would decide whether to accept such liquor distribution privatization deal.

Last year state voters rejected two liquor privatization initiatives, but there’s another attempt in the offing to get the state out of sales and distribution. A group of retailers and restaurants – including Costco, the Northwest Grocery Association and the Washington Restaurant Association – have filed a new initiative. Supporters expect to begin gathering signatures in the next month and are confident it will be on the ballot this year.

Washington is one of 18 “control states,” places where the government runs the sale and distribution of liquor. The Evergreen State has had this system since 1933, and state officials say it results in lower per-capita alcohol consumption and a reliable stream of tax revenue for government. But some see privatization as a way to potentially bring in more revenue to state coffers, however others say the myriad proposals don’t add up and could be a bad deal for taxpayers.

The Liquor Control Board runs the distribution system now. There’s a single distribution center in Seattle with 86 employees. It handles all incoming liquor products sold in stores, distributes products to the 373 state, contract, military and tribal stores. The center distributes about 4.7 million cases a year (that’s 18,000 cases a day).The state Auditor estimates the distribution building and equipment is worth $33 million.